I'm Alive
by MrsRiggs
Summary: Kairi Valentine and her family have been surviving the zombie apocalypse. She likes to think they don't need any help, of course. But Carl Grimes, on the other hand, thinks she needs a lot more help than she'll admit. With walkers around them, tensions in the group, and even everyday problems, can Kairi admit that she doesn't like being alone? Eventual CarlxOC. Very strong T.
1. Author's Note

_**Hey there! This is Lottie, the author.**_

_**Now, just to let you know, this story is going to be different from a lot of other stories. You'll see a lot of characters you don't expect, and there will be not-so-average pairings. It's an AU (alternative universe, holla) and things will be really different. Some things will stay the same, but I'll probably twist some other things to make the story more interesting. It's not all about romance, don't worry; there's action and adventure, too.**_

_**Warning: contains strong themes, such as blood, gore, sexual references...etc. So this is a STRONG T. You have been warned! There's no sexual scenes in it because I'm not comfortable enough to writer those yet, but there's lots of innuendos and implications. So yeah.**_

_**Have fun reading! Ily all and I hope you enjoy reading my story just as much as I'm enjoying writing it. You're all awesome.**_


	2. Chapter 1

My name's Kairi. Kairi Valentine.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. 'Who has the last name Valentine? That's sooooo crappy.' Yeah, well, screw you. I have the last name Valentine, and I will until I get married. Well, at least, that's what I always used to say. I don't know if I'll get married, the way things are now.

Here's the thing. The world has gone to shit. Everything we once knew is gone. It happened so fast. Now, the dead rule this world.

One day, they just...started coming up out of graves and walking the streets. Anyone who died, became one of them. It took us a while to figure out that if you destroy the brain, you don't come back as one of them. Otherwise? You do. There's something inside all of us, some kind of virus. That's what turns us into those things. We call them Walkers.

I've heard a different series of names for them; Walkers, Biters, Monsters, Brainless Assholes, Shitheads...oh, there's been quite a few. But that's besides the point.

The whole thing about the virus being inside all of us? My mom figured that out. She was a scientist, and a damn good one at that. Maybe she could have cured this. But she killed herself.

We were with my brothers and my sister, Josh, Tyler, Maria and Jenna. Jenna and Josh are twins, and they're both 17. I'm 16, Tyler's 13, and Maria's 10. But anyway; Mom walked off, saying she had things to do. We thought nothing of it, although, looking back, she had been acting a bit off. We heard this gunshot and by the time we got there...we found my mom, lying in a pool of her own blood with a note curled into her fist. I don't remember exactly what it said. She said she was sorry and that things were better this way. But we burned the letter to keep us warm. Harsh? Maybe a little. But we have to keep moving. Especially for Maria.

She doesn't really understand how the world works, and it's better to keep it that way. I don't want her to have to kill any of those things unless she absolutely has to. I'm not teaching her how to defend herself until she's 11, we've all agreed on that. We'll know, because Josh – the organized little shit – has been keeping track of the days. He has a watch that displays the date as well as the time, but just in case it breaks, every day, he writes the date in his notebook, for some reason. I don't know why, nobody does but Josh; and he keeps it to himself.

The world is more dangerous than ever; but it's not just the dead you have to look out for.

It's the living you should be scared of.


	3. Chapter 2

"Fuck." I muttered, my eyes raising to the sky as the fire I had lit went out once again. We couldn't build a big one at night, but still, we couldn't even get a small one going.

"Kairi," Maria whispered. "I'm cold."

It felt as if someone had stabbed me in the heart. The tone of her voice made me feel weak and stupid for not being able to light a fire to keep her warm. Thinking along these lines brought a spark of determination inside me.

"Don't worry, Maria." I whispered back. "I'll get you warm. Just try to be brave for a few more minutes, okay? You're a big strong girl."

She nodded and put on her brave face, her arms wrapping around Tyler. His fingers ran through her hair and I nodded at him. We all knew that was one sure way of comforting her; combing through her hair with your fingers.

I turned towards the fire again. I only had three more matches left in the box. I grabbed a few more sticks from nearby, and added them neatly to the stack I had. I brought out a match, slid the box closed, and lit it. I quickly threw the match into the small wood pile, then lit another one, doing the same. I pocketed the matches, praying.

Just my luck, the fire fizzled up, small but undeniably warm. I turned around to see Josh and Jenna grinning. Tyler and Maria's faces had just lit up.

We all sat around the fire, cross-legged, cooking squirrel. Josh knew how to hunt, and of course, that was the only thing around these days. Well, the only thing that was easy to get. There was the occasional deer, but we'd never been lucky enough to catch one.

But, that being said, we were lucky enough to be eating in the first place, so I was definitely thanking my lucky stars for that.

Despite the fact that the whole world has fallen apart, I still keep my stupid beliefs. I don't believe in God, or anything like that; I have no religion. But I have my own silly beliefs; counting the stars and picking out my lucky ones, closing my eyes and wishing at 11:11...silly things like that. It's those silly things that kept me going, along with my family.

Once the squirrel was cooked, we ate hungrily. My squirrel was gone in seconds, but my stomach was grateful for the food. I leaned back, my eyes fluttering up to the stars, searching. I pointed upwards, gesturing to eight particular stars.

"Those ones." I said.

"Pretty." Tyler remarked. He pointed out five. Five was his lucky number, eight was mine. "Those are mine."

Josh and Jenna both pointed out three – a different three, of course – and Maria pointed out six. It was just a silly tradition of ours.

"Hey, Kairi. 11:11." Josh said, checking his watch. I grinned, and closed my eyes, wishing.

_I wish we could find a shelter and get out of the open. I wish we could find a shelter. I wish, I wish..._

The sudden sound of growling made my eyes snap open. "Guys." I murmured, my hand finding my knife. "Get the stuff."

Despite the fact that I wasn't the oldest, I often found myself protecting them. They scrambled for the bags. Maria whimpered and Tyler shushed her. Josh lifted Maria onto his back and they started heading for the pathway. I picked up my backpack but didn't join my family just yet. I clutched my knife tightly, my eyes scanning the clearing. I got my water bottle, used some of it to put out the fire, then put it away, scampering after my family. They had headed for the nearest path, as we always did, but they'd gone out of sight. It was dark, and I could only just see the path in the dim light.

Suddenly, I heard a groan and a growl of a walker and I turned to see one right next to me. He grabbed my arms, pulling me towards him, his mouth open wide to take a good bite out of me. I pulled out my knife and stabbed him in the head and took off running. More walkers were following me. My family were waiting on the path.

"Go!" I whisper-yelled, and they ran. I ran, too, trying my best to keep up with them. A cold, dead hand grabbed my ankle, pulling me back. My grip on my knife obviously wasn't tight enough, because it went flying forward. My head slammed down on something hard, causing my vision to start blurring and my head to start spinning. I weakly kicked at the walker as it crawled on top of me, barely able to keep it's teeth away from my face.

I heard someone scream my name, and suddenly a loud gunshot rang out. The walker fell limply on me, blood spurting all over my face and clothes. My vision was still blurry and my strength was fast fading. I sure was weak; I'd only hit my head. I heard the sounds of someone shushing my crying sister, and I felt someone picking me up, one arm under my legs and the other around my waist. _Bridal style. Nice. Never thought I'd be carried like this..._my brain said.

I focused my eyes on who was carrying me. A boy with brown, messy hair, wearing a sheriff's hat, and he looked around my age. His eyes were piercing blue, and his pale pink lips twitched into a gentle smile when his eyes met mine.

"It's gonna be alright." He whispered.

"Th-thank..." I began.

My eyes rolled back and my body went limp. The last thing I remembered feeling was being carried away by the boy in the sheriff's hat.


	4. Chapter 3

"Is she going to be okay?"

That voice was familiar, but my mind was so fuzzy, I couldn't place it. My eyelids felt extremely heavy, so I couldn't open my eyes, either.

"Yes. She just hit her head, that's all. She's overworked herself, and so when her head came in contact with...whatever it was, her energy drained from her." An unfamiliar person said.

"She's always worked so hard for us." Another voice said. It took me a moment, but I placed it. Josh! "I told her she should take a break...but she's so stubborn..."

I heard a chuckle. "Sounds like Carl. He's my son. Most stubborn boy I know."

"Dad!" another familiar voice exclaimed. "Give me some credit, I carried her all the way back here, didn't I?"

Sheriff hat boy? He carried me back here?

My eyes snapped open, and at first, I couldn't see much, but then a few figures hovering over my bed came into view. Josh, sheriff hat – Carl, a tall man who looked a bit like Carl (I'm assuming it was his dad), an older man, and Jenna.

"Hey!" Josh said, relief clear in his tone. "Would you mind never doing that ever again?"

"My head hurts." I groaned, sitting up.

"Take it easy." The old man said, gently. "I didn't have to stitch anything, but you had a bruise or two. You fell down pretty hard."

"Yeah, no kidding." I smiled weakly. "Thanks for checking me over." My gaze flickered to Carl. "And thanks for bringing me back here...speaking of, where exactly is here?"

"Our town." The man who looked like Carl told me.

"Town?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"It's a long story." Jenna said.

"Let me show you." The man offered.

The older man helped me up. "What's your name again?"

"Kairi." I replied.

"Well, Kairi, be careful out there. I'm Hershel." He said.

"Thank you, Hershel. I will be." I said.

I followed Carl, his dad, Josh and Jenna outside. They weren't joking; outside, there was a street, full of people and houses and shops. There was a large fence, assumingly around the entire place, and it looked pretty damn secure.

"This was a place called Woodbury, once." Carl told me. "Run by a guy called the Governor. Not one of our best friends. We ran him out. He got killed trying to take the prison we used to stay in, so we came here, with as many people as we could, and made it secure."

"It got a name?" I asked.

"Not yet. We're still working on that one." Carl's dad laughed.

"Rick! Carl!" A woman called, running over to us. She had dreadlocks, and a large sword was slung across her back. Ah, so Carl's dad was called Rick? Got it.

"Ah, Michonne." Rick greeted. "This is Kairi."

"You're the sister of Maria and Tyler, right?" Michonne smiled.

I nodded. "Yeah. Where are they?"

"Follow me. They're listening to Carol read stories." Michonne told me.

She led me to a room where a grey haired woman was reading, a big circle of kids around her, teenagers as well. Carl's hand reached out, touching my shoulder as my eyes searched the crowd. I found Tyler and Maria easily, and I instantly relaxed. The woman – presumably Carol – finished the story in hushed tones, and smiled as she closed the book.

"We can read the sequel tomorrow, yeah?" she said.

Everyone cheered. Maria looked up – and her eyes found mine. She let out a quiet squeal and got up, running towards me. Tyler wasn't far behind. Carl's hand slid off my shoulder just as Maria jumped into my arms, hugging me tighter than she'd ever hugged me before.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." I whispered in her ear.

"I was so scared." She murmured.

"Yeah, but now you don't have to be. I'm okay." I said.

I put her down only to be hugged by Tyler. He rarely hugged me, so this was a nice surprise. I ruffled his hair and he dodged away from me, laughing.

"So...Kairi...are we staying?" Tyler asked.

My eyes widened. I felt their eyes on me and my heart began to thud. This was the safest we'd been in the longest time, but these people might turn out to be bad. I suddenly didn't want to be the one to make the decisions.

I glanced at my family, then my eyes met with Carl's. I don't know what happened, but it was like we were communicating without words. I looked down.

"We should stay for a couple days and see how it goes before we make any long-term decisions." I said, at last.

They all nodded. I smiled and turned away. "I'm gonna get some air." I announced, before walking outside to the street. People smiled and waved at me, and I nodded in return, not used to seeing so many people. I walked round to the back of the building I was in, and felt much better. I looked at the fence, noting how secure it was.

"Hey," I heard Carl say behind me.

"Hi." I replied.

"You okay?" he asked me.

"I guess so." I lied.

He looked at me, and after a while of feeling his gaze burning into me, I looked at him. "I may be an idiot, but I can see through people's lies."

I laughed quietly, shaking my head. "I'm just tired of making decisions." I shrugged.

"You and me both." He muttered, kicking at a stone at his feet.

I glanced over at him, and the understanding in his eyes made my eyebrows raise. Then I realized.

Carl understood. I wasn't the only one who had to make hard decisions.

That was probably why I was starting to feel a connection with him. We understood each other. And that was when I started trusting him.


End file.
